Damon had not left the Pink Stallion Duchy when disaster struck, they had left the main city but were still traveling through the settlements around it. They had come across a town that was being ravaged by the undead and decided to stay to help, but they were finding it hard to protect the people and themselves at the same time.
Everyone in the town was running helter-skelter, Damon and the others had to be extra careful not to hit a civilian since some of the undead weren't decayed. Fortunately, though, they had quickly noticed the necromancers and found out that killing them would stop the undead, now they were carefully searching for more hooded figures who were using the chaos as a cover.
Lorax focused mostly on protecting and healing injured people since his Curse Words did not affect the dead, Jasmine easily tore through the undead while Damon's attacks had the most range. But they couldn't be everywhere at once, the undead had already broken into the town by the time they reached and were scattered around, the only thing Damon and the rest could do was try to kill the sorcerers who controlled the dead quicker.
But unlike the undead, they didn't have endless stamina.
Damon gritted his teeth and cast [Shadow Clone], his shadow split into three, and two of them attacked the undead around him, easily piercing them with their skulls knife-shaped arms. He had already lost count of the amount of undead he had killed, they were like a locust swarm, you kill one and a hundred would replace it. He was beginning to regret not choosing the Fire Element as his main element.
Some guards along with some brave but mostly desperate people were fighting all around, but they were dwindling quickly. Damon shot a glance at Jasmine, her blurry whip easily tore the undead apart. From a distance, she looked firm and unruffles, but Damon could see from her furrowed brow that she wouldn't be able to continue for long. Logan had been trying his best to protect and heal those that needed it but was now focusing only on himself, the people with him had either escaped or died.
'At this point, we're going to have to abandon these people and leave.' Damon thought.
The duration of his [Shadow Clone] came to an end and the undead rushed at him, his shadow squirmed like it had a mind of its own then it transformed into the silhouette of a sharp-clawed being, then it rose and began tearing through the undead like a beast.
And it was a beast, a fiend to be exact. It was the Shadow Fiend that Damon had absorbed into his own shadow after it has used an intruder they had once captured as a conduit to escape from the Shadow Realm. With basic commands, Damon could control it to attack or defend, although it wasn't too powerful it was still easy for it to rip apart the undead.
Suddenly, a huge green fireball came sailing toward their side. The wide flame brightened everywhere and made the shadows more prominent, Damon quickly tapped into the shadows, but he was rushing to stop the fireball, someone else would do that soon.
As if on cue, a huge white barrier appeared in front of the roaring flames. The fireball splashed on the barrier, licks of flame spilled from its side and when they dropped on the ground they sizzled like acid.
That wasn't the first time the sorcerers who control the undead had sent a fireball at them, they would send them periodically as if they were in a rush to destroy the town. Damon turned his eyes to Lorax, the Cleric was the one who blocks the fireballs for them, but from the way he gritted his teeth he probably wouldn't be able to keep that up for much longer.
Next, Damon launched his attack. Dark shadow spears flew out of every shadow Damon could control and towards the direction where the fireball came from. Then Damon sank into the Shadow Realm.
The noise of the battle immediately faded away and the colors melted off, unlike the normal realm the Shadow Realm was silent and cold. Damon advanced speedily past the slowed-down chaos and towards the area where the sorcerers could be positioned, the undead formed a taxing obstacle course that he had to get through.
As he got closer to his target he spied a dark figure in the distance, it was hazy black, unlike the usual grey color the Shadow Realm normally had. The figure stood eerily still in the grey realm, Damon's nerves were taut as he stared at the figure with utmost vigilance. Then the dark figure moved, it moved with shocking alacrity and was rapidly lessening the space between them.
Damon didn't wait to see more, he quickly tried to exit the Shadow Realm, but something firmly grabbed his ankle and he ended up pulling it out with him. The sounds of battle returned to Damon's ears, but he didn't care that he was in the midst of the living dead. Without looking back he ordered his Shadow Fiend to attack the thing grabbing his leg and causing it to let him go.
Damon created distances between them and turned his shadow into long tendrils, ready to attack the dark figure at any given moment but one look at the figure made him gasp in shock. He was looking at a face he thought he would never see again, the face of Lloyd Bayonne, the brother of Heather Bayonne who Jasmine had killed. Because of a mark that had mysteriously appeared on Jasmine's and Lloyd's palms allowed them to be connected.
Damon had thought that Lloyd had either starved to death or had committed suicide, he had even brushed over the fact that the ouroboric mark was still on Jasmine's palm. But lo and behold, the man was still alive, he was a twisted version of his formal self but he was alive.
Damon could vaguely understand what had happened to him according to his knowledge, his body had been possessed by a Shadow Fiend. The Shadow Fiends have a Possession skill, when Damon uses it his shadow would cover his whole body like a skintight armor, but what happened to Lloyd was massively different.
The Shadow Fiend seemed to have integrated itself into his body, his Aura was spilling out uncontrollably, and it had turned black and wafted out of his body like smoke.
"Whatever," Damon said as he got rid of unnecessary thoughts, "it doesn't matter what you've become. I am different from the way I was before, let's have a rematch!" his shadow tendrils grew long and sharp, ready to strike Lloyd the instant he moves.
Lloyd didn't say anything, he cocked his head in another direction and rushed there, bulldozing through every undead in his way. Damon stood stunned for a few seconds before realizing something, his head snapped to where Lloyd had gone to.
"He's going after Jasmine!"
He directly entered the Shadow Realm, reaching Jasmine's side faster than Lloyd could. When he popped back out his [Sense] picked up a familiar energy building in Jasmine, he immediately felt relieved and smiled brightly. A dazzling phenomenon surrounded Jasmine, she had finally reached level 20.
Jasmine turned to him and smiled at him, she was about to say something but then Llyod landed heavily in front of them. When he saw Jasmine his face contorted into a savage frown, that was the first expression he had shown since Damon saw him.
"He's still alive?" Jasmine said in wonder.
"Yeah," Damon answered. "You think you can take him?"
Jasmine bared her teeth to him, "Absolutely! You just go deal with the sorcerers at the back."
Damon nodded and disappeared.
Jasmine snickered at Lloyd, but her laughter held a tint of murderous intent, "My my, how the mighty have fallen. I still remember the humiliation you gave me back them, now I can finally return them."
Lloyd snarled in answer and his Aura blazed, he formed a sword from his Aura and launched himself toward Jasmine in a blur. He was fast, but Jasmine was faster. She dodge his strike and punched him in the face, a crack was heard and a few teeth fell out of his mouth. He flew back faster than he came and smashed into the ground, creating an indent the size of his body.
"Although I had vowed never to use this skill on a human ever again," she spoke to the slowly rising Lloyd, "you aren't exactly human anymore. So I have no qualms using this on you."
"[Devastation]!"
Now that she was level 20, the skill had gotten even more powerful. Kudos had to be given to Lloyd though, even in his deranged state he still managed to raise his sword to block the attack, but it was futile. The sword was destroyed and he was blasted upwards, then ravaged by the claws on the whip. Before he dropped down Jasmine smashed him down with [Meteor], an explosion boomed and the shockwaves blasted apart every undead in its vicinity.
After the dust cleared Lloyd was revealed, his left side was gone. He lay still in the broken earth, his chest had finally stopped moving.
Jasmine looked at her palm and breathed out in relief as the uroboric mark slowly disappear, then she glared at the undead who didn't know fear.
"[Rip]!" She said, the whip in her hand turned blurry, and in the next second all the undead in front of her had been bisected. The skill [Rip] worked better as a single-target attack and focused heavily on precision and speed but she could still use it to take down multiple targets though it would be less powerful.
The undead she killed were quickly replaced, she was about to attack again when a large batch of them suddenly dropped. She was confused for a moment then she smiled in understanding, Damon had taken out one of the wretched sorcerers.
With a wide smile on her face, she rushed back into the fight.
…
The Gangu Forest.
A mercenary group called Rising Sun moved stealthily through the forest, using the shrubs and trees to hide from the undead passing by. Unlike their name they weren't proud and overbearing as the sun, they were a new mercenary just recently formed. They had imagined themselves rising to fame and being blindingly popular – hence the name.
But at the first sight of danger, they ran.
They had been part of the mercenary groups paid to protect the Iron Hoof Town, but they could stomach the thought of dying under the revolting undead so they had quietly sneaked away. They had decided to leave the Black Stallion Duchy and start again somewhere new, as long as they manage to survive.
Their group consisted of Maple, who uses the bow and a stack of arrows, she only had one enchanted arrow she almost went broke trying to make.
They had Cole, he could use magic but only knew one spell; the Air Blast Spell.
Then there was Brian, who carried a sword but hadn't unlocked an Aura yet, but he had studied some sword manuals. But what the group didn't know was that also a Summoner that was blessed by the God of Origins. This had happened just before they left Iron Hoof Town, he had been praying for their survival when he was suddenly blessed by a god he had never heard of.
He had wanted to kneel and thank the god for the blessing, and he would have if they weren't deserting. Because of that, he hadn't had time to explore what a summoner was, all he knew was he was able to summon beings from the Lower Spiritual Realms through cards. He had been given a card when he was blessed but he hadn't had the time to check what it was.
Because he was lost in his thoughts he didn't notice that Cole who was in front of him had paused and hit his head on his back.
"Wha – uck!" He choked before he could get his complaints out because standing in front of them were the undead they had tried so much to avoid.
They were standing still with vacant green eyes – or green sockets for the ones without any – in a neat, square formation. Behind them were two hooded figures who were riding skeleton horses, the Rising Sun group knew they were the sorcerers who controlled the undead.
The undead rushed at them abruptly while they were still frozen in fear.
"Shit!" Maple yelled as she pulled out her enchanted arrow on the get-go, the arrow flew from the bow with a blast and tore two undead in half, but that didn't kill them. She kept on shooting arrows but they were useless.
Cole didn't stop chanting as he sent Air Blast after Air Blast at the undead, but he only managed to knock them off their feet, dealing virtually no damage to them.
Brian stood behind as he panicked, none of their attacks would work on the dead. He looked at the sword at his waist and snorted, there was no way he was going to fight a close-combat fight with the undead, they would swarm him in no second.
"Guys, get behind me!" He said. The others looked back in confusion but didn't question his words after seeing his firm expression. They ran to his back and waited for his move.
Brian raised his hand and a red card appeared floating on top of it, he had decided to fight as a Summoner. This was the first time he had seen the card and was thoroughly surprised by what he saw. Drawn on the card were three red, round creatures, and written on the top corner was [Flame Tikki Takas].
Though dumbfounded, Brian didn't have time to waste pondering. He clenched the card and it broke like glass, a black pentagram appeared before him and three round creatures appeared after a flash of light. The creatures were at knee height and looked like they were made of red rocks, their huge eyes flashed like hot magma and they had little arms and feet. When they appeared a translucent barrier covered Brian, the summoned creatures stood still, as if waiting for something.
Brian jolted, "A-attack!" He ordered frantically, the undead had gotten dangerously close.
"Yaa!" The [Flame Tikki Takas] screamed, their skin turned molten hot and flames burst out of every corner of their body. They ran forward as they screamed, the first undead they hit were mowed down, their skin cauterized and melted off.
The [Flame Tikki Takas] moved very bizarrely, they didn't run in a straight line and when they hit something would turn in another direction with the same blazing momentum. They never turned backward but Brian knew they would if he told them to, they also left trails of flames when they ran which trapped the undead until they melted from the intense heat.
The hooded figures on skeleton horses couldn't sit still any longer, they began chanting and a few skeletons dropped to the ground then their bones thrust out and stab the [Flame Tikki Takas] in different places.
Brian gasped when he saw this, according to the information he had gotten after he was blessed if his summons were destroyed he wouldn't be able to re-summon them again unless he was lucky and got the same card later.
But the [Flame Tikki Takas] didn't die, after they were stabbed they burst into two smaller versions of themselves, then the six of them continued wreaking havoc. Along the way, they were stabbed again and the same thing happened, then twelve more [Flame Tikki Takas] even smaller than the former squealed as they burned through the undead with flames even hotter that when they were first summoned.
Although what happened was peculiar Brian knew that if they were hit one more time they would be destroyed, while he was watching them he accidentally glanced at the surroundings and choked in fright. He quickly retook his summons, then he grabbed his dazed friends and ran.
The necromancers tried to chase them but a burning tree fell and blocked their path, that was when they noticed their surroundings. Everything as far as their eyes could see was burning, because of the intense heat the [Flame Tikki Takkas] exuded they didn't realize that they had started a forest fire.
…
Sword Peak Academy
There was carnage everywhere in the Sword Land, dismembered bodies littered around. There was a large black-soot area with burnt buildings and bodies, and a mushroom-shaped smoke cloud hung in the air.
A woman in the air coughed vehemently to remove the thick smoke from her lungs, the soot on her face didn't diminish her beauty nor the fury in her eyes. Her name was Alexandra Lovegood, a powerful Swordswoman from the most puissant family in the kingdom, other than the royal family.
Her husband Alejandro Lovegood flew up to her concerningly, "Are you okay, my love?"
"Yeah." she wheezed, "Who knew that fucker would self-destruct?"
Alejandro sighed but didn't say anything, he looked down at the remains of the fight that had just ended. No one knew where a skeleton as powerful and durable as a Swordsman with a condensed Fifth Aura came from or why it decided to cause as much carnage as possible. It had taken three people with Sixth Rank Aura to stop it, and even then it exploded before they could kill it.
"How is Rama?" Alexandra asked. Rama was the other Swordsman who fought with them, he was also the closest to the skeleton when it exploded.
"He's bruised and dazed, but he's alright."
Alexandra nodded. "What about that?" She pointed her thumb to the bone cage that covered the entire Sword Land.
Alejandro jutted his chin at the sorcerers waiting patiently for them below, and they both floated down to meet them immediately.
"Well, have you found a way to destroy that thing?" Alexandra didn't beat around the bush and asked straight away.
"No." One of the sorcerers spoke, "Because that is impossible."
Alejandro frowned, "What do you mean?"
Another sorcerer answered, "We have perceived the magic that created those bones with our magic sense, and with our extensive knowledge have realized that what we detected was Soul Energy."
"Soul Energy?" Alejandro repeated.
"Yes. Someone is exchanging their soul for a massive power boost, that bone cage isn't coming down until the person who cast the spell dies." The sorcerer shrugged, "We just have to wait until their soul burns out."
"We can't wait! If I'm right, something is happening to the kingdom. And the Sword Peak Academy has been trapped so we won't be able to provide help." Alejandro said, "Is there a way you can locate the person who cast the spell?"
The sorcerers looked at each other for assurance before answering, "We can try."
"Thank you very much."
Alejandro and Alexandra left the sorcerers to their chanting and walked a distance away, Alejandro looked worriedly at the bone dome and sighed.
…
Logan stood on his Bone Dragon and looked down at the castle with a vicious grin, the knights had noticed his legion and were rushing to create pre-emptive measures. His undead army had surrounded the castle at all sides, they stood still yet exuded the aura of an army from the underworld.
With an order, the Skeleton Dragon unhinged its jaw and spat out a huge emerald fireball, signaling the start of the battle